President Bola Tinubu's spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, announced on 11 September 2023 that a meeting in Abu Dhabi between Tinubu and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had produced a "historic agreement" resulting in the immediate lifting of the year-long UAE visa ban on Nigerian travellers, and that both Emirates and Etihad Airways would resume flight schedules into and out of Nigeria without further delay. The UAE had imposed the visa restriction on Nigeria and roughly twenty other African countries in October 2022.

According to Ngelale's statement, the restoration of flights would not require any immediate payment from the Nigerian government toward the airlines' blocked ticket revenue, a separate and long-running dispute that had contributed to Emirates suspending its Lagos and Abuja services in the first place. The presidency also said the two leaders had agreed a new framework for foreign exchange liquidity between the two countries, details of which were to be announced later.

A Deal With Loose Ends

The announcement was met with some scepticism in the days that followed, after Emirati officials and news outlets described the Abu Dhabi meeting in less definitive terms, referring only to broader discussions on bilateral cooperation rather than a confirmed lifting of the visa ban or a firm date for resumed flights. Nigeria's Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, later clarified that the UAE's decision came with updated identity and travel-history verification requirements that prospective visa applicants would need to meet.

Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development Festus Keyamo, who had been sworn in just three weeks earlier, credited President Tinubu's diplomatic engagement for making progress on an issue that had vexed his predecessor for the better part of a year, describing the outcome on social media as evidence of the president's "Midas touch."

Significance for Nigeria-UAE Air Links

Emirates and Etihad's Nigeria routes had historically carried large volumes of business, tourism, and connecting traffic to destinations across the Gulf, Asia, and Europe, and their extended absence had already reshaped travel patterns for Nigerian passengers who had increasingly turned to alternative hub carriers. Whether the September agreement translated into flights resuming on the announced timeline would depend on how quickly the two governments worked through the technical and financial details left unresolved by the Abu Dhabi meeting.